MotoGP: Lucio Cecchinello praises Casey Stoner for incredible season

Casey Stoner’s first ever Grand Prix team boss has described the Australian as one of the best riders of the last 10 years after the Aussie won his first world championship title in Japan last month.

Italian Lucio Cecchinello not only gave Casey Stoner his MotoGP break when he ran him on an Aprilia 250 in 2002, he was the man who stepped in at the last-minute to help the 21-year-old get into MotoGP last season.

Four out of Casey Stoner’s six years in Grand Prix were spent under Lucio Cecchinello’s wing and he said: “Without any doubt Casey has made an extraordinary, excellent job.

“You can see that he is in really top form. My best congratulations to him because this year he really deserves to win the world championship.”

Lucio Cecchinello admitted he took great personal pride in being able to have played a part in helping Ducati’s Casey Stoner emerge into one of racing’s hottest young talents.

“It is a good feeling to know that I could help such a good rider.”

Lucio Cecchinello said he knew Casey Stoner was destined to achieve great things when he first signed him as a raw 16-year-old for the 2002 world 250 championship.

Recommended by Alberto Puig, Lucio Cecchinello said: “Without any doubt his debut on a 250 machine was impressive. I remember in January 2002, he made his debut in Jerez with a kit Aprilia 250.

“At the end of the first day Marco Melandri was just a few tenths ahead. I remember everybody in Aprilia and everybody in my team was completely shocked because the time he made was impressive for a young kid of 16 and testing for the first time a 250 machine.

“It was completely fabulous and he rode the bike very natural. He adapted to the bike very naturally without making very much effort.

“That day we had the confirmation of what Alberto said to us that he had great, great, great potential. We had the confirmation when we started to analyse his data and we understood how he could be so fast and what his potential was.

“We definitely understood that we had in our hands one of the best riders of the last 10 years.”

Despite that glowing praise, Lucio Cecchinello admitted he has been surprised by just how convincingly Casey Stoner has romped to the world title.

He added: “I don’t think anybody expected such a perfect season, such an incredible season. I knew that he could be very fast but I expected some more mistakes.

“Especially seeing him in the other classes where he crashed quite a lot. For me I believe he grew in his maturity and definitely the feeling he has with the Ducati is something exceptional that no other rider has.

“Honestly we didn’t expect such a high level of domination, it is incredible. Even Ducati didn’t expect this.”